


WHO. RE(ALLY)

by SotheBalance



Series: Stereotypes are a Bitch, but Baby we Have Each Other [4]
Category: SHINee
Genre: Alpha Choi Minho, Alpha Lee Jinki | Onew, Alpha Onew - Freeform, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst, Arguing, Beta Key, Beta Kim Kibum, Disrespect, Heavy Angst, M/M, Omega Lee Taemin, Pettiness, Sasaeng Fan(s), Stereotypes, Swearing, basically Taemin fucks up and then is like oh shit, hurt!Minho, petty!Taemin, tempers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2019-09-01 05:50:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16759192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SotheBalance/pseuds/SotheBalance
Summary: Watch what you say.Moments of built up hurt and anger are were relationships rumble.Taemin and Minho are no different.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> OKay so unedited and all, I literally wrote this in one sitting, like not even moving for three hours. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> ~Dani

‘WHORE’ the walled screamed at the group in red- bright,angry and disappointed. Taemin steeled his face and locked his jaw. The recipient of the message was clear, like the melancholy that had emerged Taemin’s face. The words, red like his hurting heart, mocked his very presence. As the sole omega in a now four member group, it was obvious who the message was intended to wound. 

Jinki knew this as well, their group had been through so much pain and suffering these past few months, trying to stay together when they were falling apart at the seems. This was too much weight added to their shoulders, too disrespectful to push off as a simply a sasaeng misadventure. Onew bit his plump lips, geering up for an emotional break down from at least one of his members, but he’ll be damned if he failed as a leader yet again. He was determined to be a shoulder for his team to lean on, for an elder hyung to talk to.

He needed to make sure Taemin was okay first.

“We never know who it’s... directed… to…” Jinki began, trying to break the silence that had shocked everyone into submission. This wasn’t the first time that someone in the group had been a victim of a sasaeng attack, and certainly not the first to have fans invade their apartment, but it certainly didn’t make the situation any easier.

“It’s me.” A whisper few from the youngest’s mouth, a forbidding tone of acceptance as his brown eyes finally met the wall defaced by a slur. The red reared its ugly head once more, goading the young male into a fight of will, ready to kill.

“Taemin, you never know-” Kibum began, turning to comfort the maknae, but Taemin move out of his hold and moved towards the other side of the living room.

He was carrying too much- stress, anger, dejection- that this was bound to be his breaking point.

“Don’t you guys get it? It can only be me! In case it’s slipped your minds, I’m the only omega in the group,” Taemin began to yell, furious at the world for letting this happen to him- to them after it had the gall to take away one of his closest friends. The universe was a bitch, especially to those at the bottom of the social scale.

The only and only performance king? That title meant nothing when taking into account that this wonderous dancer was nothing more than a mere weak minded omega. That sole fact superseded all his work as an artist; all the fame and reputation he gained meant nothing if all fan could talk about is how they wanted to get him alone and have their way with those luxurious curves. So many times he had seen the comments made on his dances, about how if he wasn’t so strong willed that they would have fucked him from New Years to next Christmas- Taemin was disgusted and the lewd replies to such comments did naught but leave a bitter aftertaste in his mouth.

So, considering that, the message had to be for him.

“It can only be me. No one else is gonna get targeted like this- it’s only ever me,” Taemin spat, the venom in his words stemming from hurt rather than anger. Only he could provoke such distaste in the alpha community for his solo endeavors. He was an omega going off on his own in a alpha’s world- what more could I have expected? Taemin thought

“Taemin,” Jinki began to speak, his voice a near quiet utterance of the younger brunette across the room. Strings of hurt wrapped around his heart, beginning to hurt into the working organ as he tired to calm Taemin down.

“Don’t!” Taemin shouted, his voice growing in volume, ready to argue. “None of you will ever understand that this-” he flung his arm in the direction of the offending wall. “This is normal for me! I get subjected to this bullshit about how I’m a whore and a slut and how anyone would be lucky to have my body or be dating my body!”

“Lee Taemin-” Kibum warned, crossing his arms. Unbenounced to Taemin, Key had also gotten similar comments- he appeared so submissive in stature to those ‘macho, muscular’ alphas that seemed to roam in their fan base. After all, toxic masculinity stems from the lack of consideration. Did those alphas consider him human? No, he’s property to them. Beta or not, he looks enough like an omega for those distasteful men to get it on.

“No, I’m not done yet! I have never cheated on anyone in my life. Hell the only person I’ve been with is Minho, and we all know how that happened right?” Taemin snarled, moving backwards towards the direction of his room, his sanctuary. There he could properly be angry; a place, a saben haven, where he could throw objects and cry and curse the universe yet again for making him a fucking omega. Fuck the universe.

“I didn’t even get to date anyone else because I presented and suddenly I’m property of a man I never met in my life. I was fourteen- fourteen! For god’s sake I wasn’t even legal and yet here I was, basically married because I have a submissive scent and he has a dominant one.”

“Taemin!” Minho bellowed, surprised at the admission.

He and the younger had been practically tied at the hip ever since Taemin reached the age of eighteen. They have spent so many wonderful, unforgettable moments together- cuddling on their bed when the nights grew unforgiving, quiet not-dates where they hid somewhere and just chatted in between innocent kisses. Those memories were branded into the forefront of Minho’s mind, and he treasures them like nothing else in his life, second only to Taemin. Did his younger lover not enjoy those moments? Minho took special care to make sure that Taemin felt like he could rely on him, maybe even live him in the future.

All that was solely because Taemin was forced to be with him? Minho was wounded by this- and the fact that the recent ‘I love you’s from Taemin might have been a lie

“Don’t you dare yell at me! You have no right!” Taemin screamed back, angry that Minho had the courage to stop his rampage. This was his time to spew his feelings out, and not one person was going to take that away from him and if someone gets hurt in the process, fuck it consequentialism has always been Taemin’s philosophy.

“They why the hell do you have the right to yell at us, huh?” Minho retorted, ire beginning to rise at how Taemin had forgotten all respect for his elders. It was one thing to hate being in a relationship, it was a completely different one all together to forget that those older than you deserve respect.

“Minho!” Key yell indignantly. The situation in the room was beginning to get too dangerous of a topic to bicker about. Key would be damned if he bared witness to the falling out of his dongsaengs- or if the worst comes to play, the end of what he perceived was a loving healthy relationship.

“He’s forgetting his respect!”

Taemin stomped his way over to stand in front of his boyfriend- the fucking infuriating, tall ass male that he had been stuck with. It’s been six goddamn years that they’ve been official, but SM had been forcing him with this male long before that, believing that Taemin looked like an omega, therefore he would present as an omega. He kept all these harmful thoughts in his mind for years, not having enough of a tipping point to reveal his irritation at his situation.

“Oh, I don’t think I am. What you’re implying is that I’m forgetting my place right?”

A gasp sound through the room as Key covered his mouth. Never had Taemin been this blunt with his perceptions- be it wrong or right. Taemin typically tried to talk around a topic. Even so, SHINee tried to keep the stereotypes out of the inner workings of the group- yes they were respectively alphas, betas and an omega, but they didn’t want the two maknaes subjected to the bitter reality of society.

Taemin seemed to think otherwise as society just busted into their group with its goddamn precious stereotypes- with how closely they’re embedded, you’d think it’s a confederate slave owner advocating that actual people are property because it helps the economy.

“And where is this so called ‘place’ you think I believe you belong?” Minho spat, his anger getting dangerously out of control as Taemin waves his disrespect in front of his face like a perfumes handkerchief. You can angry, but disrespecting your hyungs in the way Taemin currently was doing was drawing the line for Minho.

“Underneath you”

Onew and Key shared a horrified look. Was that what Taemin truly thought about himself or was it just a spur of the moment blurb?

“Are you kidding me?” Minho sounded exasperated as he stared at Taemin, hands on his hips as he tried to make sense of what his lover was saying.

“The only one kidding is you, do you really think that I don’t know what you think when I do something that’s not omegan like of me? That you think I’m acting above my position- my goddamn place beneath all of you.” Taemin pointed to his members, his thoughts finally having exploded into a jumbled incohesive mess that he had begun to pick pieces off of to force out of his mouth.

“Taemin that’s enough. You’ve ranted and screamed about what you need to scream, but it’s time to stop. Go to your room and calm down,” Jinki’s firm voice commanded the room, every bit the leader he was meant to be, as he held the forcibly maknae’s relationship together.

“See! There it is again! You think I’m crazy! I’m not. I’ve been in the music industry for as long as all three of you and yet I’m the one who gets these threats. You think that anyone has meaningly called Minho or Onew a whore? Hell no, they’re alphas, they don’t have to face all the shit that I do-and Key hyung gets it even better! You’re a damn beta, you’re not expected to do anything!”

Oh Taeminnie, if you could see how wrong you are, Key mused, staring at the poor wounded male in front of him. They all faced stereotypes for the status they held. How many times had Jinki or Minho broken down in his presence and spent hours upon hours describing how they couldn’t live up to the alpha standard they had to meet from their seniors. How many times had Junghyun describe being a beta as an unsatisfying middle to two disappointments? Taemin wasn’t the only one struggling.

“Taemin, that’s more than enough,” Minho warned. It about time to wrap this up and have a civilized, adult conversation.

“I have no reason to listen to you, I didn’t even want to date you in the first place!”

The room was silent, the very breath held still as they awaited a response.

Minho’s eyes glossed over as he pursed his lips in anger.

“Is that what you really think?” He whispered, the fight slowly leaving his body. It was no use at this point- Taemin didn’t love him did he?

“Yes, why wouldn’t I! In case you’ve forgotten, you’re the only alpha I’ve been with the past six fucking years!”

That had been the nail in the coffin.

Minho clenched his jaw in anger, grinding his teeth to keep his toxic words quiet lest he permanently ruin their relationship- not like Taemin hadn’t done that already.

“You don’t want to be with me then fine.”

Minho brushed past Taemin in order to get to their shared room. He had to get rid of it, it was too mocking to him, too boastful of a broken relationship.

He reached into his personal dresser, pulling out the small palm sized box he had hid previously. It was useless to him now.

Promptly, he returned to the living room, the whole journey having taken less than a minute.

As he stepped foot into the carpeted floor, he flung the small box at Taemin before speaking again.

“Fucking sell that shit, because if you don’t want to be with me, then I don’t want to be with you.”

Taemin’s eyes widened as he opened the box to find a beautiful ring. As Taemin took the ring out of the box, he admired the simple silver band with a singular rose carved into the side. The top of the box had an embroidered note, reading: A rose for the beauty in my life.

“You were going to propose?” he whispered, the true weight of the worlds he had so mindlessly screamed being visible. He was tearing into their relationship with those words, and now he has to sew up the cuts in this rose fabric of love, if the piece was even salvageable at this point.

“Not anymore. I’m going to EXO’s dorm, no one fucking call me.”

Minho had thrown in the towel in this argument, and in their relationship it seemed like too.

“No, wait,” Taemin hastedly said, placing the ring where it belonged, on his ring finger. As he ran towards the tallest man in the room, he bemoaned the fact that it had not been Minho’s long fingers sliding the ring into place.

He reached the man, placing his hands on his chest to prevent him from leaving. If he left now, would be leave Taemin for certain?

“Taemin let go.”

Minho moved Taemin’s hands off of him, the touch blazing through his soul in a dangerous, painful manner.

“Hyung, please don’t go.”

The hands returned to Minho’s chest, their presence bringing light to the fire in his soul yet again.

“Huh, you’ve relearned honorifics.”

“Hyung please.”

“Let go Taemin.”

Pushing the dainty hands off his chest, Minho resumed his trek to the door, only to be stopped by a hand on his wrist. He glanced down at it, ready to remove the limb from his when he froze at the sight of the ring he was planning to give Taemin to ask for his hand. It didn’t give him the feeling of joy he expected to be flooded with when he first had bought it; it only deepened the hole in his chest cavity.

“Take off the ring, Taemin.”

“No, Hyung.” This ring would have to be pried from his dead body, Taemin decided, even then, he would come back from the dead to keep it. He wasn’t going to take it off.

“Don’t pretend like you like wearing Taemin. No one’s forcing you to wear it this time round, you can give up the loving boyfriend act now.”

Bitter, hurtful words were beginning to spew from Minho’s mouth, words he would never say under any other circumstance, but his patience and his heart had been tried, and he lost at protecting them.

Taemin felt tears brewing in his eyes. He couldn’t let Minho leave angry with him, not today, not after what they both had said. He did the only thing he could think of- he grabbed Minho’s face with both his hands and kissed him, try to channel the passion that they had in their relationship. Minho should have broken and wrapped the shorter man in his arms, whisper apologies between soft, remorseful kisses as they made up.

But Minho didn’t kiss back and Taemin felt his entire heart drop out of his body. Minho had never done that before.

“Please no.” He whispered, looking at the dull chocolate eyes of his lover. Those eyes were always filled with love whenever they looked at Taemin. Even the most dense person on this earth could tell that Minho loved Taemin with all his heart.

“I’ll be back before noon tomorrow.”

The door closed silently, without the slam of anger to accompany it. It was rather a soft close of defeat, of hurt.

Taemin collapsed on the ground, tears spilling from his eyes as he held his left hand close to his chest. Key unfroze from his shock and managed to get the younger to cry into his chest, heartbroken sobs filling the room with a horrible symphony. Jinki just continued to stare as the fall of a relationship finished before him, silent.

“Come back, please hyung.”

(“ _Come here,” Minho whispered, his eyes glossy as he looked at Taemin. The younger didn’t move from his spot, staring down at the ground with a blank expression._

_“Taemin-” Minho started again before the dancer crashed into his chest and hid himself in his neck. The taller of the two stood still for a moment before embracing his lover. There was something wrong with Taemin, Minho could feel it, and it most likely had something to do with words a few fan had thrown at Taemin during a recent fan meet._

_“They think I’m a whore, soloing by myself you know.”_

_“Taemin…” Minho began, his chest seizing from pain at the words. He had seen the way Taemin’s face had fallen post the meeting._

_“It’s always good to talk things out.”_

_“I love you.”_

“ _Love you too darling.” )_


	2. Secrets Hidden Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minho has a talk with two of his EXO hyungs regarding his relationship and theirs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is part of the sequel, but there's gonna be so much more cause now that I graduated I so much free time before college so be ready y'all!

Choi Minho sat motionless as he stared at the blank wall of his hyung’s room. It’s been his only view for the past three days- it would have only been one had the vicious claws of emptiness not taken him hostage. 

He could not return to the apartment, not now when he still did not understand why everything had gone downhill so quickly. 

Taemin, his wonderful, graceful, dancing legend of a boyfriend, did not want to date him in the first place. He was nothing more than an obligation to the younger. Minho felt disgusted in himself as he looked back at the memories between him and the maknae, but he could not recreate any of the positive emotions that were attached to the whips of joy and desire. Desire has melded into disgust and shame- shame for assuming that Taemin had enjoyed their time together. He truly was a fool. 

“A fool for you, Lee Taemin,” Minho whispered out towards no one in particular. A choked sob sounded through the room as he pushed his hands up to his face to veil himself from the cruel reality of his falsified love life. 

Why would Taemin want to be with him anyway? What was so special about him that made him think that he could be happy with the young shining star? 

“Minho, it’s Junmyeon hyung, can I come in?” A pleasant voice tinged the room with a tone of worry as the leader of EXO stood outside the room, having heard the sob as he was returning from Yixing’s room. 

“It’s your room hyung, no one’s stopping you,” he answered, not moving from his position. 

The door opened silently, and Junmyeon entered the room gently. As his form stilled, he looked at the pitiful state of his dongsaeng, a pang of pity running through him. Sure Taemin and Minho had the occasional argument, but never to the point where Minho refused to move from his position in days. 

The elder man eased his body onto the bed, letting out a sigh. 

Tensioned silence rang throughout the chilly room, the air thick and cloudy. 

“Do you love Lay hyung?” 

The question shocked Suho, and he turned to look at Shinee’s rapper, who had yet to move from his hunched over state.

“What do you mean?” 

“Even though you two were forced to be together, do you still love hyung like you loved Kris?” 

Kim Junmyeon inhaled, turning his head to the wall of his room; the question made his heartache, but he knew he couldn’t answer it truthfully- what would he and Yixing even call themselves at this point? 

“Minho-ah….” the grey-haired man began, ending in a sigh as he looked down at his hands. “Lay and I are not a good example of a relationship. We’re complicated.”

“Not that complicated,” Lay spoke from the door, a frown on his face as he entered the room slowly, sitting down next to the younger. 

“What could Taemin have said that’s made you completely break down?” Yixing asked gently, placing a hand on Minho’s thigh in comfort. 

“Hyung, you guys didn’t get together of your own will right?”

The question made the elders in the room still with shock- that was the one unspoken rule in the industry, to not tell anyone that your relationship was essentially fan service. The companies that allowed alphas and omegas in the same group needed to make sure both stayed in check- imagine the backlash from one of the idols being with someone else. Hence, the idea of inner group dating began, and with it, all that became involved with his scheme made sure to fake their love, to prove to the public that they were the most in love couple on the planet when in fact they could very well hate each other. 

“You know we’re not supposed to ask that, Minho,” Junmyeon sighed, looking down at his hands with an unreadable expression. Lay was a wonderful person and anyone that that fell in love with him couldn’t fall out of it, but that was the problem; he and Yixing didn’t love each other. 

“I know.” 

The Chinese male stared at his supposed Korean counterpart with a clenched jaw, the disappointment clear in his eyes. 

“Does that have anything to do with Taemin and you?” 

“Yixing, you know he’s not allowed to answer that truthfully, we’re all under contract,” Suho pointed out, not raising his head from his hands as if they had become the most interesting item in his entire life. 

Ah yes, the contract. That damned contract they all signed when they joined the company and again when they debuted. Everyone in the idol world knew what the contract was- it basically told them that they need to maintain an unfulfilling relationship with a person that the company had picked in their own group for as long as the person was under the company. 

“The managers aren’t here, and Minho’s not in the best state of mind. I would rather cheer him up instead of worrying about a problem that isn’t present, don’t you agree?” 

Junmyeon pursed his lips in frustration- the man was a stickler for rules, especially the ones that kept his career afloat and after waiting seven years to debut, he wasn’t going to start playing around with that idea. He gave Lay a look, locking his jaw to signify that they were going to talk about this later.

“Taemin didn’t even want to date me in the first place,” Minho confessed, forgoing the warning bells in the back of his mind- these were his hyungs, people he had known for years, they weren’t going to be whistleblowers. 

A sharp intake sounded from Suho’s side of the room as he whipped his head over to Minho’s direction. 

“Minho…” He trailed off, his voice beginning to get the starting signs of pity. Minho felt his eyes begin to tear up again as he heard the tone of Junmyeon’s voice. 

“Taemin said that he didn’t want to date me in the first place hyung,” Minho restated. “It’s been seven years, but he brought this up now, now when I’ve fully fallen in love with him and it hurts hyung.” His voice broke as he started to succumb to his tears. 

“It fucking hurts so much.” 

Lay sighed, looking away from the pitiful sight in front of him. 

“Minho, maybe you should go talk to him,Taemin is still somewhat young, he probably didn't mean what he was saying,” Suho said, his voice soft and sad as if he could understand Minho perfectly. 

He could though because the same happened with Wu Yifan all those years ago- an unrequited love story that ended explosively and harmed both of them when they parted ways. 

“Taemin is more than old enough to understand what he was saying, Junmyeon,” Lay replied, his jaw clenching- that was Junmyeon’s response to everything the youngsters did. 

“Taemin is also hot-headed, in case you had forgotten, Yixing.”

Yixing refused to look over at the elder, instead, he rose from the bed, sighing. 

“I think you should go back to the SHINee dorm. If you stay here longer, your relationship will suffer.” With that, the Chinese male left the room, leaving an annoyed Suho behind. 

Minho watched as the door closed gently before he too got up from the bed. He ran a hand through his matted hair and then stilled, waiting for Junmyeon to get up as well. 

“Hyung, can you drive me back to the dorm?”

Suho began to protest, but Minho cut him off with a soft, “Please.” 

“Let’s go.”


	3. Regrets

Taemin had not moved from his spot on the couch for days, staring at the door in hopes of catching Minho as he walked in. 

He had everything planned in his head, as soon as Minho came home he would run up to him and beg for forgiveness. Whatever Minho wanted he would do, he just wanted his boyfriend back. He wanted the stabbing pains in his heart to go away, wanted his body to stop feeling like he had been left out in the cold for too long. 

He wanted the pain of being left alone to leave- he couldn’t take it anymore. Minho had been such an important part of his support system and here Taemin was, showing his gratitude by screaming at the man and claiming that his love was never existent. 

Oh but it was. 

Taemin could not describe how much he loved his hyung. 

Minho made him feel like he was lying on a bed of rose buds- no of calla lilies. Minho’s loyalty to him could not be rivaled by anyone, his desire unmatched, his understanding unparalleled. Minho knew Taemin inside and out, he knew how his emotions drove through his body, how he was torn by piecing words or by how his doubts were sometimes too much for him. 

Minho was his rock. Simple as that. But Taemin had cracked that rock because he was so angry- angry at the world, angry at his perception of his group’s lack of understanding. 

It was so difficult for omegas in this industry, but they weren’t the only ones with issues, with stereotypes to deal with, with the media and the gossip.

Taemin stared down at his hands. He really wanted his boyfriend back. As if some higher power had sensed his loneliness, the door slowly opened, revealing a haggard version of the member that had left three days ago. 

“Minho! Where the hell have you been?” Onew, who heard the door open asked. Kibum silently entered the room as well once he heard Jinki’s question.

“He was with me,” Junmyeon answered, appearing behind the man in casual clothes. 

“I came to return him to you, he was making my room too sad.” Junmyeon tried to joke, but it only resulted in a strained smile from Kibum.

“Hyung, I’m sorry for troubling you these past few days,” Minho bowed his head, but didn’t clarify which of his elders he was apologizing to. Suho just nodded at the rest of the people in the room, placed a gentle hand on Minho’s shoulder and then left the band alone. 

Minho turned to Taemin, his gaze piercing through the younger. 

“We should talk.”


End file.
